Claim: Parents want $1 million after son killed by police

HUNTINGTON BEACH The parents of a 20-year-old man shot and killed by Huntington Beach police are asking the city to release information about their son’s death and pay their family $1 million dollars in damages.

Daniel and Christie Berrier filed a claim against the city on Sept. 19, saying they want answers in the death of their son, Ian Christopher Berrier, who was shot in a confrontation with police on March 21.

“We are simply asking for the H.B.P.D., the Sheriff’s department, the District Attorney and the county Coroner’s Office to disclose their findings from the six-month-long investigation,” Daniel Berrier wrote in an email to the Register. “Despite our efforts, the facts are unknown to us and the rest of Ian's hundreds of friends and family who have only heard what the media has released.”

Huntington Beach police responded to a disturbance call near the 4900 block of Warner Avenue. The man who called police said a man with a handgun had threatened him, police said.

Police located the man and an officer confronted him.

Huntington Beach police Lt. Mitch O’Brien said the man pulled what appeared to be a handgun from his waistband and the officer shot him. A witness told police the officer tried to revive the man, he said.

The handgun recovered by police after the shooting turned out to be a "replica semiautomatic pistol."

The Berriers say in their claim that they called police prior to the incident to tell them their son was possibly “carrying a fake pellet gun” and added “our son’s life and the life of his 23-month-old son (are) worth more than this.”

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigated the shooting, as is routine for Huntington Beach, and turned its findings over to the Orange County District Attorney’s. The DA is reviewing the case.

O’Brien said the department can’t comment on the case before the DA releases its findings.

Berrier was expected to have a pretrial hearing in April on charges of robbery, being under the influence of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and being a minor in possession of alcohol, court records show. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges in January.